Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method of forming a metallization feature on an edge of an integrated circuit chip and extending onto both major surfaces of the integrated circuit chip, said method comprising the steps of enclosing said integrated circuit chip in a mask which exposes an area on an edge of said integrated circuit chip and areas on major surfaces of the integrated circuit chip contiguous to said area on said edge of said integrated circuit chip, and applying metal to said area of said edge of said integrated circuit chip and said areas on said major surfaces of said integrated circuit chip exposed by said mask, wherein said mask includes openings formed by grooves and said grooves are formed by laser ablation.
2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said depositing step is carried out by a dry deposition process.
3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein said dry deposition process is sputtering.
4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said integrated circuit chip is included in a strip of integrated circuit chips.
5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said chip is included in a stack of integrated circuit chips.
6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said integrated circuit chip is included in a stack of integrated circuit strips of chips.
7. A method of forming a metallization feature on an edge of an integrated circuit chip and extending onto both major surfaces of the integrated circuit chip, said method comprising the steps of enclosing said integrated circuit chip in a mask which exposes an area on an edge of said integrated circuit chip and areas on major surfaces of the integrated circuit chip contiguous to said area on said edge of said integrated circuit chip, and applying metal to said area of said edge of said integrated circuit chip and said areas on said major surfaces of said integrated circuit chip exposed by said mask, wherein said mask is formed of a lithographic resist.
8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein said resist is exposed using a mask including openings therein formed by grooves.
9. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein said depositing step is carried out by electroless deposition from a fluid solution.
10. A method of forming a metallization feature on an edge of a integrated circuit chip and extending onto both major surfaces of the integrated circuit chip, said method comprising the steps of enclosing a strip of integrated circuit chips in a mask which exposes an area on an edge of each of said integrated circuit chips and areas on major surfaces of each of said integrated circuit chips contiguous to said area on said edge of each of said integrated circuit chips, and applying metal to said area of said edge of each of said integrated circuit chip and said areas on said major surfaces of each of said integrated circuit chip exposed by said mask.
Complete technical specification and implementation details from the patent document.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
Unknown
May 9, 2000
Browse 5M+ US patents with plain-English claim translations and AI-generated analysis.